


Trouble

by Querulousgawks



Category: Veronica Mars (TV), Veronica Mars - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-24
Updated: 2014-04-24
Packaged: 2018-01-20 14:25:48
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1513805
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Querulousgawks/pseuds/Querulousgawks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She's ashamed to admit it, now, but she only decided to be dangerous once Neptune ruled out safe. Why Mac's hair dye came and went.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trouble

Here's what Mac will never tell Veronica: it wasn't until Lilly Kane died that she started breaking rules.

 

It's an unpredictable thing, growing up so Wednesday Addams in the Brady Bunch. It probably makes some people defiant, but early on it made her cautious, made her try for nonthreatening. Don't make the locals nervous, maybe they'd keep her around. She wore her mousy hair low on her neck and got not-too-good grades and stayed away from challenges and electricity and trouble. (She used to think you could do that, stay out of it. They all thought that, before Neptune's golden girl was gone.)

Lilly died and she learned that trouble wasn't a room in a house, you couldn't lock yourself on the other side of the door from it. It wasn't weather on a camping trip, you couldn't save yourself with preparation, the right clothes, parents who knew how to look ahead. Trouble was miasma, and you couldn't hold your breath forever, but you could acclimate, you could teach your blood to thrive on the new air. Trouble. Get a server rack and a soldering iron for Christmas. Dye your hair and breathe deep. 

This she might tell Veronica, or maybe Weevil: she saw Lilly, once.

In that bathroom that night, through the steam of the worst shower of her life. After he had lowered the gun, grabbed her clothes instead, and walked away.

_You owe me one_ , Lilly said, and Mac had almost laughed, right over the hammering of her heart, a dead girl counting her favors at a time like this. A Kane, down to the bone showing through a little on the side that she didn't particularly want to look at. 

She said,  _What do I owe you?_ because why not, she may as well get an answer from someone tonight. Her precision, or something, made Lilly smile. 

_No more magenta, God, that shade is hell on your skin tone._

(Years later, in the salon, steam billowing from under the spa doors as the weight lifts off her neck, starting to panic as she learns to shape this soft mop into defiance of gravity, she remembers. Relaxes.  _Take me or leave me, Lilly Kane.)_


End file.
